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REMEMBRANCE
Commissioned by
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ABOUT THE COMPOSITION Remembrance is a concert band work honoring the many who served in the American Civil War. It was commissioned by Carl R. Schenker, Jr., and Susan Sherman Richardson for premiere by the Minnesota Symphonic Winds, a Twin Cities-based adult wind ensemble under the direction of Dr. Timothy Mahr. Remembrance, composed in 2009 by Carl Schroeder, has an approximate performance time of 5 1/2 minutes. The difficulty level is grade 3.5, appropriate for high school, college and community bands. |
Carl Schroeder of Minneapolis, Minnesota, composes music for concert band, orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles and solo piano that often draws inspiration from American history, current events, natural surroundings and memories. His large ensemble music has been performed by more than 40 concert bands, orchestras and choirs, including the Air Force Band of Mid-America, Minnesota Youth Symphonies and Chamber Choir Kyiv. He has written works on commissions from the Minnesota Symphonic Winds, Minnesota State Band, Cornell University Symphonic Band, Southwest Wind Ensemble, Calhoun-Isles Community Band, Wells Fargo Chorus and other ensembles and individuals. His music is featured on five CD recordings, his choral work Two December Carols is published by Boosey & Hawkes, and his concert band work Spin is published by C. Alan Publications. Schroeder is a 2005 graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he studied composition primarily with Timothy Mahr and Peter Hamlin. In 2001, he was named "Composer with Most Potential" by the Minnesota Music Educators Association, and in 2004 he was one of three under-25 American composers chosen to participate in the National Band Association’s Young Composer Mentor Project, where he took lessons with composers Mark Camphouse, Donald Grantham and Dana Wilson. He composed Remembrance during the summer and fall of 2007 and completed a revised version in spring 2009. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MORE ON REMEMBRANCE
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NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER To get started, I read some Civil War books and researched music of the era. For the main melody of my new piece, I took the first six notes of the Civil War song "Marching to Georgia" and flipped them upside down (a process known as "inverting" the melody), and then expanded that idea into an original melody that uses the pentatonic scale and the "Scotch snap" rhythm, which were both common in folk music of the time. Using this main theme, as well as snippets of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," I wrote most of Remembrance in summer 2007, and then made a few tweaks in early 2009. My former composition professor at St. Olaf College, Timothy Mahr, generously conducted the world premiere of Remembrance in October 2009 with the Minnesota Symphonic Winds. A few years after that, my uncle passed away, and the same Remembrance recording was played at his funeral. I'm very grateful that this project brought us together in the years before he passed away. – Carl Schroeder, December 2019
AWARDS & HONORS
CONCERT PERFORMANCES
RECORDINGS |
DETAILS AND PURCHASING INFORMATION
Instrumentation:
pic, 2 fl, ob, bsn, 3 cl, b cl, 2 a sax,
t sax, b sax, 3 tpt, 4 hn, 3 tbn, euph, tuba, timp, 3 perc PURCHASE A SCORE OR SCORE/PARTS SET Listen to Recording | Performed by the Minnesota Symphonic Winds (Timothy Mahr, conductor) |